


gold mines glisten in the skin

by pageleaf



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Domestic Fluff, First Time, M/M, Thick as Thieves Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 19:27:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10973835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pageleaf/pseuds/pageleaf
Summary: Kamet settles into his new life, and picks up a few skills along the way.





	gold mines glisten in the skin

**Author's Note:**

> this is the softest thing i've ever written in my life, congrats mwt
> 
> thank you to grim_lupine for looking this over even though she hasn't read the book :D <333
> 
> title is from "making the most of the night" by carly rae jepsen, from E•MO•TION. if you haven't listened to that album, do it, and if you have, re-listen to this song with this pairing in mind. you can thank me later ;)

Costis brought it up at the end of their third week in Roa. They had both been too overwhelmed before then—the first week, by the bustle of settling into their new home; the second, the quiet pain of missing their old ones. By the end of the second week, however, they had established a routine of sorts.

As soon as the sun rose, Costis woke up, venturing out to find what interesting specimens he could. Kamet was often already awake—the rhythms of his sleep had yet to even out, the constant travel and change in weather difficult to adjust to quickly. Besides, the temple was still in the stages of excavating the scrolls, and they were always looking for an extra hand.

When Kamet had mentioned this to Costis, the first time, Costis had looked puzzled.

"What is it?" Kamet had asked.

"Nothing," Costis had said. "It's just that...I didn't expect you to volunteer for more manual labor."

Kamet had shrugged. It was true, that he used to think himself above such things. But that error had made him dependant on Costis during their journey, and his vanity would not allow him to continue to be that way. He _would_ get stronger.

Now, Costis accepted it without blinking whenever Kamet took on something new. "I'm cooking," Kamet said, and Costis would sit himself at their small wooden table. "I'm reading about medicine," Kamet said, and Costis looked over his shoulder and used his farm boy knowledge to help Kamet differentiate between herbs. "I'm making a map of the forest," Kamet said, and Costis helped him name the landmarks.

It was after this last one that Costis brought it up.

"Kamet," he said hesitantly. "Would you like to learn to use a knife?"

"I can use a knife just fine," Kamet said, in the process of dicing one of the root vegetables Costis had brought home. Perhaps the pieces weren't consistent in size, but it was more than good enough for their dinner.

Costis bit his lip. "That wasn't what I meant."

Kamet set the knife down. "Are you asking whether I would like to learn to fight?"

"I'm asking," Costis said, "whether you'd like to learn to defend yourself. Or fight," he added. "If you want. I just thought that if you were going to be out in the woods alone, you might want..."

"And who would be my teacher?" Kamet asked lightly, and watched, fascinated, as Costis flushed. He'd been doing that more often, too, and every time it was as startling and gratifying as the last.

"I would, if that's fine with you," Costis said, careful, and Kamet snorted. As if he would have accepted anyone else. At least Costis, he knew, would not look at him with pity.

So the following day, they started lessons with the knife. Costis stuffed a sack with dirt and held it in front of him and told Kamet to come at him. When Kamet did, Costis snapped his hand out, whiplike, and knocked the blade out of his hand.

"You're holding it wrong," Costis said, and dropped the sack.

Kamet made a face, and Costis rushed to add, "No, it's something everyone does. Here, let me—"

He wrapped his hand, large and warm, around Kamet's, and Kamet caught his breath, nearly dropping the knife in his surprise. "Like this," Costis said softly, and corrected Kamet's hold. "Can you remember that?"

"Yes," Kamet said. He didn't think he could forget it if he tried.

They continued their lessons when they could for the next month or so, by which time enough scrolls had been excavated and preserved that Kamet could begin his true work. He of course wasn't able to bring such rare, fragile artefacts home, so he spent much of the day in the small room the temple had set up for its scribes, painstakingly copying the ancient letters. Thankfully, the room had plenty of windows, and his eyes were grateful for the relief.

On dry days—which grew fewer and fewer as the rainy months approached—they carried their wooden desks and chairs out into the temple's courtyard and worked there, the sun kissing their shoulders, surrounded by the smells of spring.

"You're getting golden," Kamet said to Costis one day.

Costis smiled, pausing in chopping wood. "The sun seems to be agreeing with you, too."

Kamet nodded and would have responded, but then Costis lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, and Kamet had to focus on not swallowing his tongue instead.

Then the rainy season came, and Kamet learned to love that too: the thunder that rolled gently through the temple, the patter of water on their home at night, the fresh and electric scent that clung to Costis's clothes when he came home in the evenings, soaked and grinning.

"You're like a dog," Kamet said completely not fondly, at all.

Costis slicked his wet bangs back from his forehead and beamed. "I have always loved storms," he explained.

"You'll get sick."

"I'm made of sturdier stuff than that," Costis said dryly.

Kamet's lips twitched. "If you stay out that long tomorrow, you might drown."

"Ah," Costis said with a laugh, "you've forgotten, my friend, that unlike you, I can swim."

They both froze, Kamet washing a pot for dinner, Costis with his sodden shirt half-off.

Costis turned to him, eyes wide and stricken. "I—"

At the look on his face, more than anything, Kamet had to laugh. It didn't upset him, because he knew he had gaps in his knowledge still, but he knew equally well that he'd been filling them methodically. With that in mind—

"Well," Kamet said, and Costis looked at him warily, "perhaps I should learn as well."

Costis lit up. "Would you like me to teach you?"

Internally, Kamet rolled his eyes at how dense his Attolian could be. "Yes, Costis, that is what I was hoping for."

"If the sun comes out tomorrow," Costis said eagerly, getting the rest of his clothes off and pulling on a drier set (thankfully) quickly, "we'll start then."

"So soon?" Kamet asked, startled even though he'd been the one to ask. He hadn't expected Costis to be so excited at the prospect of giving a grown man tediously basic lessons in how to swim.

"It's your day off, right?" Costis asked, and then went into the storage room before Kamet could respond.

"Tomorrow it is, then," Kamet muttered to himself, scrubbing the pot with a little more vigor. "It'll be fine."

The next day, the sun graced them with its presence. Kamet woke up just as it was bright enough to filter through the shutters. He heard a whinny, and then Costis's voice, murmuring to the horse in a low, soothing tone. Faintly, in the foolish sort of train of thought that comes when one is still half-asleep, he thought that he wouldn't mind waking up that way everyday. Then he shook himself and rolled out of bed.

Kamet sighed happily as he stepped outside, the light kissing his cheeks and shoulders gently. He had never wanted more to be a cat, responsible for nothing but curling up in sunbeams and napping.

Unfortunately, he remembered ruefully, he had other plans.

"I've packed a small bag," Costis said cheerfully, hoisting said bag over his shoulder. "We'll have to go to the coast, which is a little under an hour's ride away, so I thought we could make a day of it? I went into town this morning for food and the dairy farmer let me borrow her mare."

Kamet blinks, then nods. "Okay."

They set off a few minutes later, Kamet seated behind Costis with his arms loosely around Costis's waist. Somehow it is this, and nothing else before, that makes him blush, and he's grateful that Costis can't see his face.

"You're good with horses," Kamet remarked, nibbling on a meat roll Costis had packed for breakfast. He'd noticed how comfortable Costis seemed around them, even before this morning: the few times they'd come across them during their journey from Medea to Attolia, when they rode from the Roan port to what would become their home in the woods, any time they came across them in between.

"My family has a farm, back home," Costis said with a sweet note of nostalgia to his voice. "We had goats and cows and wheat—those were in the main farm, which my uncle owns—but my father had always dreamt as a boy of training horses, so he kept a pair of those, too." He laughed. "You wouldn't have thought me so good when I was first learning. I was, oh—all of six? And _terrified_ of these big old beasts and all their teeth."

Kamet stifled a smile at the image, a curly-haired boy hiding behind his father from a demonic horse. He remembered, suddenly, something Eugenides had mentioned, back when Kamet had only known him as the errand boy. "The king hates horses, doesn't he?"

Costis stilled, and for a moment Kamet wondered if he'd misspoken. But then he felt Costis tremble faintly with suppressed laughter before saying, mildly gleeful, "That he does."

"I'm sensing a story here, Costis," Kamet prodded, and Costis relented.

"Well, he's not bad with them, he's just legitimately terrified of them. I remember this one time he was supposed to be going on a hunt with the queen. I think it was only a month before I left for Medea, actually—"

Kamet tipped his forehead against the center of Costis's back. Costis's speech stuttered, and Kamet froze, caught.

"...and then the queen said, 'I thought you grew up a prince,' and the king looked like he was thinking about pulling her into the lake with him, and even Teleus was coughing to hide his laughter," Costis continued, as if nothing had happened, and Kamet sighed with relief.

They reached the coast soon enough, and Costis led them to a small, grassy spot on the shore of the bay. He tied the mare to a tree and rolled up the cuffs of his breeches before sticking a toe in the water. Smiling back at Kamet, he said, "It's perfect," and started to undress.

Kamet shrugged and pulled off his own shirt, looking down at his cotton breeches for a moment before rolling them to his knees. The thought of being naked with Costis watching made his neck prickle, hot; besides, the breeches would dry easily enough.

"I taught my sister to swim," Costis was saying, voice muffled by the neck of shirt going over his head. "So I promise you're in good hands." He smiled, cheeky, and Kamet huffed.

"We'll see," he said. "Just don't drown me, hmm?"

The water was nice, he admitted as he waded in cautiously. Just cool enough to counteract the humid heat of the day.

Costis bent to dip his head under the water and came back up smiling, wet hair stuck to his forehead and neck. He should have looked silly (and he did, a little) but his expression was happy, carefree. Kamet felt his chest twinge, fond, and looked away.

"Can you do what I just did?" Costis asked, and Kamet tensed involuntarily. He remembered the time when he was sixteen when a friend—a gardener in his master's winter home—had convinced him to go wading in the ocean, and when they'd reached their chests, had reached out and pushed Kamet's head under the waves. He'd meant it playfully, but Kamet had flailed, swallowed brine in his panic. He didn't want to repeat that.

Costis saw his delay and held out his hands, placating. "At your own pace," he said. "It's just to get you comfortable."

Kamet took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He nodded once, sharp and determined, and ducked his head underneath.

"Okay?" Costis asked softly when Kamet came back up, and his tone made it clear he'd stop at the first hint of fear in Kamet's face.

Kamet smiled despite himself. "Yes."

Costis grinned back at him. "Want to try floating?"

Apparently the way you taught someone to float was by putting them on their back in the water and holding them in your hands. Kamet gazed up at the sunny sky and tried not to think about Costis's palms on his back and his thighs, keeping him secure.

But trying not to think of that only made him feel as if he were floating unmoored, and he felt himself sinking. He panicked, his heart kicking rapidly in his chest.

"People often float best when they're not thinking so much," Costis said dryly. "I have you, I promise."

Kamet bit his lip, staring up at the sky, but he couldn't unclench. 

"You have to relax," Costis said.

"I'm trying, idiot," Kamet snapped.

Costis sighed. "You're going to make me run out of stories by next month, at this rate," he said under his breath. Then he added casually, "Did I ever tell you about how I joined the guard?"

Kamet played along. "No."

"Well, I was fifteen and my father took me with him to the market because he needed help carrying things—"

"A giant even then, I see."

"Shut up, Kamet," Costis said easily. "Anyway, my sister had tagged along and at midday I turned around and she wasn't in the cart anymore, she was just gone. So I tried not to panic because she'd wandered off before, she's headstrong like that, except she wasn't at the puppet show or the baker's booth or even the flower seller."

"Where was she?" Kamet asked, curious.

"I found her holding the hand of a Lieutenant of the Queen's Guard, out in the Valley to check on something the baron was up to—I never asked what. She was babbling to him about something or other, and..."

Kamet laughed, and Costis peered down at him, triumphant.

"I'm going to let go now, is that okay?" he said, hushed.

Kamet tipped his head back and closed his eyes. "Yes."

Costis let go and Kamet floated, easy as breathing, knowing that if he started to sink, there'd be hands to catch him. Sure enough, when he shifted slightly, he started to drop, and Costis caught him about the waist, letting him down gently onto his feet.

"That was...nice," Kamet said softly, feeling oddly flushed.

"I thought we could stop there," Costis said, equally soft. He still had his hands on Kamet's waist, and Kamet couldn't bring himself to look at him, but he couldn't bring himself to stop clinging to his shoulders either. "Kamet?"

Kamet cleared his throat before saying, "That sounds fine," but his voice still came out thick with something unnameable—or he could name it, if he were brave enough.

Costis was quiet, and when Kamet chanced a look at his face, he was staring down at Kamet, his eyes very dark.

Belatedly, Kamet realized he was half-hard, and shivered, his skin prickling with goosebumps. He swallowed, hard.

Costis's eyes caught the motion, and his mouth parted slightly. "Kamet," he said, and then stopped, like the words had left him.

His hands had slipped from Kamet's waist to his hips, and Kamet couldn't catch his breath. "Yes?"

"May I kiss you?"

Kamet closed his eyes, and he recognized the emotion making his brain fuzzy and his throat dry for what it was. "Yes."

When Costis kissed him, it felt exactly like floating on the water. Kamet was certain that if he moved a muscle, even by an inch, he would fall and drown.

But he was equally certain that the hands on his body were there ready to catch him.

Kamet's hands trembled faintly when he brought them up to Costis's face. Costis made a small noise and grasped tight at Kamet's hips, hot and present enough that Kamet could feel his grip through his breeches, and that made Kamet clutch tighter, like a feedback loop. Every touch was wet and slick, and Kamet wanted to throw his arms around Costis and wrap his legs around his waist and not let go—knew that with the buoyancy of the water, he could probably do it with ease.

Instead Kamet pulled back and said, low and careful, "We should eat that food you brought; it's getting late."

Costis's breathing was ragged, and he took a while to open his eyes. "Okay," he said, and sounded so painfully vulnerable that Kamet kissed him again, helpless.

They ate lunch while basking in the sun, sitting in comfortable silence. Kamet laid his breeches out on a flat rock to dry, his earlier nervousness about nudity gone. Afterward, they lay on the grass, trying to soak up the remains of their rest day. Kamet had a feeling it was the first true break Costis had had in a very long time, and he knew it was true for himself as well.

When he turned to look at Costis, Costis's eyes were closed, his long, dark lashes sweeping his cheeks. All Kamet could think of, looking at him, was when and where and how he could kiss him next.

"Costis," he whispered, and Costis blinked his eyes open at him. "Can we go home?"

"Already?" Costis asked, puzzled.

Kamet smiled, sly. "I have some things I'd like to do that I shouldn't, here."

Costis flushed red, his eyes going dark and wanting. Wordlessly, he stood up and started pulling his clothes back on; Kamet stifled a laugh.

He wasn't sure it he was imagining it, but it seemed as if their return trip was faster than the one to the beach. They were home as the light was changing from late afternoon to evening, brushing the grass and trees with fire.

"You've become even more golden," Kamet said, touching a hand to Costis's cheek.

Costis hesitated, and then pressed a quick kiss to Kamet's palm, before biting his lip and turning away to busy himself brushing down the mare. "You look happy," Costis said.

Kamet raised his hands over his head and stretched luxuriously, his joints popping. He sighed, content.

"I am."

**Author's Note:**

> as always, on twitter as @peakcaps and tumblr as pageleaf, if you need me! :)


End file.
